DOES NOT INCLUDE:
May 19, Sunday: Love for $Sale with Tom Orr, benefit for the St. James Infirmary(NOT INCLUDED!)
May 24, Friday: Whorrific Popcorn Theater Bus Tour (NOT INCLUDED-but DOES include cabaret before the Bus Tour)
May 26, Sunday-Whores Bath (NOT INCLUDED!)

The ONLY exception for SRCC VIP Pass is that Whores Bath (May 26) and Amber Dawn's Workshop (11-12:30 May 24th) are for sex workers only, and they are included for sex workers, but otherwise this pass allows entry to absolutely everything else and includes a wonderful Hookerfest Goodie Bag. Just make sure to let us know you want to go on the Popcorn Bus, as it will sell out. If any other events may sell out, we will inform you and hold seats for you.

May 25th Saturday, Admission includes entry to all movies at the Roxie Sex Worker Film Festival

Sex Worker Sinema at the 8th Biennial San Francisco Sex Worker Film and Arts Festival
by Festival curator, Laure McElroy

The San Francisco Sex Worker Film and Art Festival, as always, focuses on the lives, the art, and the struggle for workers' and human rights of people employed in sex work industries. The festival strives to maintain a forum for diverse voices, including youth, sex workers of color, migrant sex workers; sex workers' rights organizations around the world, queer and trans sex workers, sex worker artists, saints, heros and she-ros, and sex workers both within and outside the borders of the United States. Films and topics address the impact of trafficking policy and discourse on sex workers; sex work as a labor issue on the international agenda; sex work and gender identities, sex education, sex art, porn, fetish culture and erotica, as well as portraits of strippers, prostitutes, doms, madams and much more.

Lot Lizard

The festival lens has always ranged far and wide around the world; this year two of our dearest feature films draw the viewer back to the gritty strolls of these United States.
Director Alexander Perlman brings us "Lot Lizard" (for those who are unfamiliar with the term, a lot lizard is a prostitute who works primarily at truckstops serving drivers). Inspired by a conversation Perlman had in 2009 with a woman working out of the same truckstop he happened to be hitchhiking, Perlman and his two person crew put together 200 hours of documentary footage over eight weeks of filming in 2010, following a selection of sex workers as they ply their trade in a uniquely American setting, including: Monica and Frank, the boyfriend with whom she shares a room bordering the lot; Jennifer, a single mom who struggles to walk away from sex work as a livelihood because it has become bound up for her with drug addiction; Betty, who says, "I don't have to date if I don't want to… but sometimes you have to," and makes no apologies about her life on the lot. The street workers of "Lot Lizard" are by-and-large working class and poor women who are engaged in what sex worker rights movement terms "survival' sex work, that is, sex work that is performed as a way to meet very basic needs of the worker, such as shelter or food or medicating; these workers, in addition to dealing with the general stigmatization of sex work, are arguably prone to more intense criminalization due to the exposed (outdoors) nature of their work. Along with criminalizing policies, agendas of "rescue" that silence the actual voices of workers trying to communicate their own needs are heavily slanted toward people engaged in survival sex work. "Lot Lizard" does not take any easy ways out by simplifying the stories of the featured or making them pithy; and although poverty and even desperation may at times inform their work and their choices, there is in every story a clear element of strength, of will and independence that transcends victimhood.

American Courtesans

Some people envision catty strippers trash-talking each others' weight and ratting out co-workers to management for crimes imagined or real for the prime stage time or just for bitchy kicks; mainstream media throws up stereotypes of hookers pulling out each others' weaves over status in the eyes of a pimp or "dibs" on a john; what people do not see is the great affection and support that can exist between workers in this oldest and arguably hardest of professions. "American Courtesans", a feature film that is the culmination of a dream project for filmmaker and escort Kristin DiAngelo, watches like a love and acceptance letter from a sex worker to her sisterhood of fellow whores. In line with a trend in sex worker cinema that festival producer Carol Leigh identifies as arising out of the contemporary, ubiquitous genre of intensely personal reality shows, the stories of the women featured in "American Courtesans" begin at the beginning, where many of the women featured relate a past of family or professional victimization, and pull the viewer through the trauma and catharsis stories to bear witness to eventual claiming of spaces of radical empowerment as whores.

Scarlet Road documents the specialized practice of Rachel Wotton, as she works with clients who are disabled, campaigning for both sex worker rights and to increase awareness and access to sexual expression for people with disability. "Pay it no Mind: The Life and Times of Marsha P. Johnson," memorializes the woman who thew "the shotglass that was heard around the world" in this tribute to sex worker and LGBT history, screening with "Remembering The Living: Monica Forrester on Sister in Spirit and Indigenous Sex Workers."

An array of brilliant shorts include new work from Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers; "A Kiss for Gabriela" by Laura Murray, "Whore Logic" by PJ Starr featuring The Incredible Edible Akynos, "Stripper Damage" by Gina Gold, "Sex Worker Open University 2011," "Transitioning Through Sex Work" by Jay Very, "Nada" by Nada Felini and Christian Vega,Creative Trafficking" by Operation Snatch and many more.

Festival founder, Carol Leigh AKA Scarlot Harlot says, "Sex workers have an excellent vantage point from which to view social hypocrisy, expressed in many contexts--by the lawmakers who use their services, then sponsor policies which further criminalize them, to the wanna-be saviors who claim to 'rescue' but only increase our vulnerability. This whores-eye-view of society is reflected in this body of work by sex workers."

For sex workers and allies, Reservations are ALSO requested for this event. Visit http://www.sexworkerfest.com/swfest2013/interseXionality.htm for registration link.

Privilege, Oppression, and InterseXionality

The San Francisco Sex Worker Film and Arts Festival is offering a 4-day series of workshops, "Privilege, Oppression, and InterseXionality," organized in conjunction with Rhizome Consulting Project. a collaboration of social justice consultants working with grassroots and movement building organizations in the Bay Area.

Current and former sex workers as well as individuals who engage in sex trade and their allies and families will be coming together to join this much needed and greatly missing lens on working towards the safety, health, and dignity of all people involved in sex work.

Rhizome "is committed to transformational processes and social justice movement building to uproot the systems of oppression that perpetuate state and interpersonal violence and generational poverty. We work to instead replace them with liberatory and beautiful structures and practices."

"Poor people, young people, immigrants, people of color and others in our communities are under attack with increasingly oppressive laws and policies being enacted and enforced to further criminalize acts of survival," explains Lisa Marie Alatorre of Rhizome. "As a larger movement and community of sex workers, we want to challenge those systems of oppression collectively. Rather than allow them to fracture our work, we aim to heal and build together."

Join other sex workers and allies coming together to build support, understanding and communication within our communities and to deepen our awareness of class/race/gender and how they overlap and intersect. We will build tools to challenge and overcome oppression as we work towards creating an inclusive space to organize and strengthen our communities. We will explore identities, the dynamics of power and discrimination and how they interact within the sex worker communities.

Locations and times vary. (See above) Space is somewhat limited. We will also offer on site registration, but reservations should be made in advance. Interested people should call 415-857-5425 to learn more about this project or to register, click here to sign up or just email us at sexworkerfest@gmail.com and let us know you are interested.

May 23rd, Center for Sex & Culture, 7PM Sex Worker Open Mic, 7:30 PM Featured Readers; This is the regular price of admission although we will offer sliding scale price at the door and NTALF. "Oral Services," a spoken word event in conjunction with the SF Sex Worker Fest

This ticket is for the 7 PM Cabaret ONLY for $15 and DOES NOT INCLUDE the Popcorn Bus tour. Performers include Scarlot Harlot, Femme 6, Ckiara Rose, Hernan Cortez, Dee Dee Russell The Incredible Edible Akynos, Tom Orr, Mariko Passion, and more. Ms. Passion guides the guests as Ana May Tong, (after Ana May Wong, the first famous Chinese actress in the U.S.)

9:30 PM, Center for Sex and Culture-This ticket INCLUDES ONLY THE POPCORN BUS TOUR. DOES NOT INCLUDE CABARET. These tickets are limited, so reserve your seat on the bus!
Performance curator and international multi-media artist Mariko Passion brings this San Francisco phenomenon to the Sex Worker Festival with the "Whorrific Popcorn Theater Bus." Storytellers and performers take riders on a magical adventure with a Happy Ending!
This sex worker 'show and tell' edition visits the haunts and landmarks of SF whoredom (like City Hall) where sex workers dish the dirt about what really goes on in "the city that knows how."
Performers include Scarlot Harlot, Femme 6, Ckiara Rose, Hernan Cortez, Sister Dana Van Iquity, The Incredible Edible Akynos, Ben Goldstein, Tom Orr, Mariko Passion, and more. Ms. Passion guides the guests as Ana May Tong\

This ticket is for BOTH the 7 PM Whorrific Cabaret AND the Popcorn Bus tour. The whole package! Buy soon, tickets are very limited for the bus! Performers include Scarlot Harlot, Femme 6, Ckiara Rose, Hernan Cortez, Dee Dee Russell The Incredible Edible Akynos, Tom Orr, Mariko Passion, and more. Ms. Passion guides the guests as Ana May Tong, (after Ana May Wong, the first famous Chinese actress in the U.S.)

Throughout May, the Roaming Hookerfest brings movies to your agency or organization including the St. James Infirmary, CAL-PEP and beyond. A day and night of sex worker sinema at the Roxie includes “A Kiss for Gabriela,” “Lot Lizard,” “Whore Logic,” “Stripper Damage” "Scarlet Road" and more. Emi Koyama comes to the Bay Area with research on "Anti-Trafficking and The Carceral State." Sponsored by SWOP, BAYSWAN, ISWFACE, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Inc., the San Francisco Bay Guardian, the San Francisco Bay Times, Media Alliance, the National Queer Arts Festival and more!

Sex Worker Film and Arts Festival: American Courtesans, Lot Lizards, Whore Logic and The Carceral State

Since 1999 the San Francisco Sex Worker Film and Arts Festival has provided a forum for sex worker film and video makers to screen works about sex workers and sex work, businesses, industries and trades around the world. The Festival has expanded to become a vibrant venue for performances, workshops, visual arts, political organizing, skills sharing and ever expanding events. The Sex Worker Festival recognizes and honors prostitutes, dancers, porn performers and other sex workers from diverse communities, who have been dynamic and integral members of arts communities since time immemorial.

Performance and Parties

TheWhoreCast LIVE! Siouxsie Q brings sex worker stories, art, and voices this time LIVE and in person to kick off the Fest at the Center for Sex & Culture featuring Cinnamon Maxxine, James Darling and Courtney Trouble.The WhoreCast Trivia game and lots of surprises in this interactive live show.

Back by popular demand, San Francisco's "Musical Comedy Cabaret Porn Star" and award-winning lyricist Tom Orr presents Love For $ale redux, "Hooker with a Heart of Gold" featuring music, burlesque, and performance art via hooker showtunes in this a benefit for the St. James Infirmary, the sex worker occupational health clinic in San Francisco.

In 2013 the Festival launches a 4 day series of workshops, "Privilege, Oppression, and InterseXionality," for sex workers and allies in conjunction with Rhizome Consulting Project. Join us for this transformative, heart and mind opening workshop series as we deepen our awareness of class/race/gender and how they overlap and intersect.

Amber Dawn will be among those offering workshops on Friday on May 24th at the Center for Sex & Culture. Amber Dawn's workshop"Tough Language and Tender Wisdoms" is "sex workers only" but most including Mariko Passion, The Incredible Edible Akynos, Mission SRO Collaborative's "Housing Justice Framework & Sex Worker Rights" and more are open to all. Please check the schedule TBA re: admission policies for each workshop.

The Festival is proud to welcome activist and artist Emi Koyama. Focusing on the carceral state, Koyama's recent zine, "State Violence, Sex Trade, and the Failure of Anti-Trafficking Policies," is based on extensive research, documenting of false premises within the U.S. domestic anti-sex trafficking movement and the alignment with the fundamentalist Christian right. The evening also includes a selection of video clips from "Collateral Damage: Sex Workers and the Anti-Trafficking Campaigns," "Normal- Real Stories from The Sex Industry" and more.

Screenings

Films and videos for the Festival focus on sex workers lives and rights; diverse voices including youth, sex workers of color, migrant sex workers; sex worker right organizations around the world; impact of trafficking policy and discourse on sex workers; new work from Asia Pacific Network of Sex Worker; sex work as a labor issue on the international agenda; sex workers as artists; queer and trans sex workers; sex worker saints, heros and sheros; sex work and gender identities; sex education, sex art, porn, fetish culture and erotica; portraits of strippers, prostitutes, doms, and madams, and much more.

The 2013 films reveal new trends in 'sex worker sinema.' Influenced by the contemporary genre of gritty and intensley personal reality shows, "Lot Lizard" and "American Courtesans" represent the best examples of self-revelation. In "Lot Lizard" (aka truck stop sex workers) hitchhiker, now filmmaker, Alexander Perlman presents intimate and unusually respectful portraits that invokves a broader story about how America deals with its outcasts. In "American Courtesans," long time escort and filmmaker Kristen DiAngelo courageously wrestles with taboo discourses about sex workers, violence and stigma. Remarkably candid and sometimes self-critical, the women in this movie invite the viewers into the circles of a suportive sisterhood to share in their trauma, catharsis and ultimately their empowerment. Scarlet Road documents the specialized practice of Rachel Wotton, as she works with clients who are disabled, campaigning for both sex worker rights and to increase awareness and access to sexual expression for people with disability."Pay it no Mind: The Life and Times of Marsha P. Johnson," memorializes the woman who thew "the shotglass that was heard around the world" in this tribute to sex worker and LGBT history, screening with "Remembering The Living: Monica Forrester on Sister in Spirit and Indigenous Sex Workers." "Ticket to Paradise" portrays the details of women's choices in a small village in Thailand, to marry a foreigner or do sex work in Pattaya.

An array of brilliant shorts include a new video from Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers, "Global Sex Workers on the March!," "A Kiss for Gabriela" by Laura Murray, "Whore Logic" by PJ Starr featuring The Incredible Edible Akynos, "Stripper Damage" by Gina Gold, "Sex Worker Open University 2011," "Transitioning Through Sex Work" by Jay Very, "Nada" by Nada Felini and Christian Vega, "Creative Trafficking" by Operation Snatch and many more. . Festival founder, Carol Leigh AKA Scarlot Harlot says, "Sex workers have an excellent vantage point from which to view social hypocrisy, expressed in many contexts--by the lawmakers who use their services, then sponsor policies which further criminalize them, to the wanna-be saviors who claim to 'rescue' but only increase our vulnerability. This whores-eye-view of society is reflected in this body of work by sex workers."

The Sex Worker Festival is proud to include sponsors: the San Francisco Bay Times (www.sfbaytimes.com); the San Francisco Bay Guardian (www.sfbg.com); the National Queer Arts Festival (www.queerculturalcenter.org), the San Francisco Transgender Film Festival (www.trannyfest.com); the Center for Sex & Culture (www.sexandculture.org); Media Alliance (www.media-alliance.org); Sex Worker Media Library (www.sexworkermedialibrary.org); International Sex Worker Foundation for Art Culture and Education (www.iswface.org), Sex Workers Outreach Project; Desiree Alliance; the St. James Infirmary (www.stjamesinfirmary.or); Solace, San Francisco (www.solacesf.org); the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Inc, (www.thesisters.org) and more.

Organizer

Welcome to the San Francisco Bay Area Sex Worker Film and Arts Festival. We will be very happy to see you all at the festival. We want to be sure that our range of ticket prices and special passes fits everyone's needs. Email us if you are looking for info about special passes or any other info at sexworkerfest@gmail.com or call (415) 857 5425. We want to make absolutely sure everyone is able to attend these events.

More about the Sex Worker Festival

Scarlot Harlot, Erica Elena and Laure McElroyare co-producers of the San Francisco Sex Worker Film and Arts Festival, now collaborating with the St. James Infirmary Speakers' Bureau with Miki Mosman, as Assistant Producer. In 1999 Scarlot Harlot founded the Festival. A grandmother of the sex workers rights movement, Scarlot Harlot (aka Carol Leigh) coined the term "sex work" in the late 70s. Festival Director and Co-producer, Erica Elena, created "Whores' Bath," and launched "Roaming Hookerfest," as well as "Privilege, Opression and Intersextionality" workshops and much more. Laure McElroy, co-producer, author and activist, has been curator of films at the festival since 2009, bringing her expertise in people-led arts activism with Poor Magazine. Artist and performer, Mariko Passion has been producing sex worker fest events for nearly ten years including her musical, Modern Day Asian Sex Slavery, The Musical. (She currently lives in Japan.) In 2015, Sangria Red joined the festival to teach a performance workshop for sex workers which will also be featured in 2017. Gina Gold, lauched her Sex Worker Confidential events, continuing this year. The Incredible Edible Akynos also returns with her solo presentation "Whore School." The St. James Infirmary continues our yearly day long classes and info for sex workers at "The St. James Infirmary Sex Workers Symposium" on Thursday, May 25th. In 2015 Kalash Ka joined the production team for the festival, co-producing Whores Bath and Clothing Swap and this year she continues with the St. James Infirmary Sex Workers Symposium and Whores Bath.